Whether or not one agrees with his last book, his humble willingness to consider that God might be calling him to change a past conclusion is admirable. It is tempting and easier to simply defend all one’s past positions and be closed to the option of changing one’s mind.
Humbly asking forgiveness from those he feared were hurt by a past position showed a true Christian heart.
I had the honor of attending Duke Divinity School while Dr. Hayes was our dean. He was not only a great scholar and a kind man, he was actually pretty funny as well. I can remember one particular get-together at lunchtime where our school's improv comedy troupe was performing, with one particular student doing a dead-on imitation of our dean. His response was just as funny! Oh, and he played with a music group made up of our profs. God bless Richard Hayes. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.
What a beautiful way to be remembered. Just curious about this part: "So remarkable was his impact that Christianity Today named his Moral Vison of the New Testament one of the 100 most important books religious books of the 20th century — and the irony was Moral Vision was not even his best book"; what is considered Hays's best book?
Dear Federico...that is such a hard question. Faith of Jesus probably left the most lasting footprint. So that could be considered as his best. But it was a dissertation and, as I heard him joke several times, about half of it should be consigned to the fire and burned:). If you are asking me, I think his best book lives in between his two Echoes books. Echoes in Paul showcased community, while Echoes in Gospels showcased Christology. Reading Backwards has the virtue of being small and focused. I could tell you stories about editing it!!!! Maybe the thing to say is that all of his books were either a tad overwritten or a tad underwritten. That is not a criticism. That is a way of saying that it is damn hard to be a biblical scholar, a theologian, and a poet all at the same time. If I had only one book to take to the proverbial dessert island, I think I would take Faith of Jesus. I learned more from that than any of his other books. Moral Vison, for me, attempted too much. I also think Richard walked away from what was "behind" the NT in favor of what was "in front" (Moral Vison) or "inside" (Echoes in Paul). Reading Backwards and Echoes in Gospels was, really, Hays' most ambitious proposal -- that the NT's reading of the OT "creates" a brand new figure. Richard and I killed several bottles of wine and not a few of single malt talking about what is involved in the creation of this new figure. ccn
This is an amazing reply! Thank you. I found myself taking notes and chuckling at the same time. I will definitely take a look at these books you recommended. And your words rounded off the tribute in wonderful ways.
In some ways Richard's most important contribution took place in Echoes in the Gospels. There he expanded his view of echo form text to text to text to surrounding passage. He also expanded the result of echo from the ancestor text to being realized in the the text to the new figure created by the two. That is, echo is NOT just A to B, or B in A, but how B cites A to create C, a brand new figure. A new book from Sonya Cronin The Repentance of YHWH will expand Hay's view of echo to fusion--narrative fusion instead of textual echo. There is so much more to be done here. Hays is he headwaters of a whole line of research yet to be realized.
Whether or not one agrees with his last book, his humble willingness to consider that God might be calling him to change a past conclusion is admirable. It is tempting and easier to simply defend all one’s past positions and be closed to the option of changing one’s mind.
Humbly asking forgiveness from those he feared were hurt by a past position showed a true Christian heart.
I had the honor of attending Duke Divinity School while Dr. Hayes was our dean. He was not only a great scholar and a kind man, he was actually pretty funny as well. I can remember one particular get-together at lunchtime where our school's improv comedy troupe was performing, with one particular student doing a dead-on imitation of our dean. His response was just as funny! Oh, and he played with a music group made up of our profs. God bless Richard Hayes. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.
What a beautiful way to be remembered. Just curious about this part: "So remarkable was his impact that Christianity Today named his Moral Vison of the New Testament one of the 100 most important books religious books of the 20th century — and the irony was Moral Vision was not even his best book"; what is considered Hays's best book?
Dear Federico...that is such a hard question. Faith of Jesus probably left the most lasting footprint. So that could be considered as his best. But it was a dissertation and, as I heard him joke several times, about half of it should be consigned to the fire and burned:). If you are asking me, I think his best book lives in between his two Echoes books. Echoes in Paul showcased community, while Echoes in Gospels showcased Christology. Reading Backwards has the virtue of being small and focused. I could tell you stories about editing it!!!! Maybe the thing to say is that all of his books were either a tad overwritten or a tad underwritten. That is not a criticism. That is a way of saying that it is damn hard to be a biblical scholar, a theologian, and a poet all at the same time. If I had only one book to take to the proverbial dessert island, I think I would take Faith of Jesus. I learned more from that than any of his other books. Moral Vison, for me, attempted too much. I also think Richard walked away from what was "behind" the NT in favor of what was "in front" (Moral Vison) or "inside" (Echoes in Paul). Reading Backwards and Echoes in Gospels was, really, Hays' most ambitious proposal -- that the NT's reading of the OT "creates" a brand new figure. Richard and I killed several bottles of wine and not a few of single malt talking about what is involved in the creation of this new figure. ccn
This is an amazing reply! Thank you. I found myself taking notes and chuckling at the same time. I will definitely take a look at these books you recommended. And your words rounded off the tribute in wonderful ways.
That was my question also.
Nice tribute. I found his book Reading Backwards so helpful.
So sorry for your loss
In some ways Richard's most important contribution took place in Echoes in the Gospels. There he expanded his view of echo form text to text to text to surrounding passage. He also expanded the result of echo from the ancestor text to being realized in the the text to the new figure created by the two. That is, echo is NOT just A to B, or B in A, but how B cites A to create C, a brand new figure. A new book from Sonya Cronin The Repentance of YHWH will expand Hay's view of echo to fusion--narrative fusion instead of textual echo. There is so much more to be done here. Hays is he headwaters of a whole line of research yet to be realized.